I advocate for and assist others in the natural care and feeding of dogs. Here you can follow how I feed and care for my dogs as well as learn about other aspects of holistic care such as herbs, traditional chinese medicine (esp acupressure), flower essences, and reiki.
For more on holistic care visit theartofdog.com

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Vida may be 14 now, but she still gets her swims in during the summer. She's not the most enthusiastic swimmer, but the benefits are so great that I get her in there nonetheless. And with a beautiful setting like this.... much better than a chlorinated pool with a person controlling her every move and no walk-in option.

She's not willing to swim as long each day, and I'm skipping days for her to have extra recovery time, but it really improves her carpal/tarsal arthritis and builds her hind-leg muscles nicely with the increased range of action swimming entails.

As she ages she needs more accommodations, but that's my job, to watch and learn, and accept her limitations.

Her favorite part of swimming? Jumping into the backseat of our '89 toyota afterward to scrubrollscrub herself on the upholstery. Seriously, she gets so excited, it's her big reward.